About this project

$1,100

pledged of $750 goal

38

backers

We reached our starting goal! Now help us reach our stretch!

We have officially surpassed our initial goal of $750. Thank you again to every backer who helped ensure that The ProseCast(?) and the Super Prose Bowl will, without a doubt, no-funsies happen. We're already hard at work on plans to kick these projects into gear.

Here in the last fifty or so hours of the campaign we're hoping now to reach a new stretch goal of $1,000. With that kind of budget we could start putting out a show that sounds more like what the professionals do. Imagine John's and Christopher's voices with Ira Glass-like clarity. Or don't, whichever is more appealing to you. We can get there! We're so close!

Every single one of you who has backed us is now as much a part of this show as we are. Please help us spread the word to writers and patrons in and out of the city. We've come so far already; help us cross one last finish line!

Now back to your regularly scheduled campaign...

Call to Arms

Since we started the Prose Bowl we've been trying to think of ways to build an even bigger and better community around it, a place for the city's many up and coming writers to mingle and see each other's best work. After a lot of brainstorming, we've come up with not one, but two of those ways: we're planning to launch a PODCAST in May, followed by our first annual SUPER PROSE BOWL in June, featuring victors from our previous battles. But we can't do it without you! Read on to find out more about our mission, our ideas, and what's in it for you.

Each month we invite up-and-coming writers from the borough and beyond to perform five minutes of their best work for fiction lovers at famed literary watering hole Pete's Candy Store. No fees, no submission process, no gatekeeping at all. If you want to have your voice heard, just come and put your name in our (very literal) hat.

We make jokes, and we have our writers compete for a mystery prize via tweet-length pieces of prose, but at our core we've always been trying to do two things: provide an opportunity that can often seem exclusive to writers who have published novels or are in an academic program; and build a community in which those writers, normally toiling in isolation, can come together, network, share ideas, and—let's be honest—have a few drinks.

Well, turns out we've got some ideas for how to pull off #1 and #2 in more ways than just a once-a-month competition.

One of those ideas is a podcast, a place for us to take the spirit of the Prose Bowl and expand it into a wider variety of forms that you can take with you wherever you go. We're thinking interviews, roundtable discussions, performances from the show's readers and guests, and (if we may be so coy) a few surprises, too. All this content would be brought together under the unifying theme of the writer's experience—the life, the work, the hardships and the road to success. A podcast that would hand you a beer and commiserate. Episodes would release every month, alternating with our live show. You'd never have to go more than two weeks without hearing our lovely voices!

The other idea is something we're calling the Super Prose Bowl (there's a Nintendo joke in there somewhere—don't worry, though, we will find it). This is it. The big one, the Tournament of Champions. A longer format extravaganza to be held on Sunday, June 19th, in the awesome Kraine Theater on 4th Street in Manhattan! The show will feature winners from previous shows battling it out for supremacy (along with a few other unique performances). Put another way, we want to bring together Prose Bowl contributors, guests, and attendees past and present for an extra-large annual celebration. You can finally bust that tux-printed t-shirt back out. .

So what can you get for donating to our righteous cause?

I dunno. That warm, fuzzy feeling, I guess?

Kidding. We kid.

Super Prose Bowl tickets!

BASIC level: a bookmark that doubles as your admission ticket - $10 per ticket (Please let us know the amount you'd like to receive when donating; we'll keep you updated on how many are still available)

BRONZE level: a bookmark admission ticket, plus have your tweet-length story read as part of the show! - $15

SILVER level: a bookmark admission ticket, a tweet story, and a copy of our first anthology of stories collected from the show. - $30

GOLD level: a bookmark ticket, a tweet story, a copy of our first anthology, one of our sweet tote bags, and VIP seating to the big show! - $40

Bundled merch will be available to pick up at the show, if you would prefer not to ship.

Sweet merch!

A tote bag featuring our snazzy new logo - $20

A copy of our first anthology of stories collected from the show - $20

The bag and a copy of the anthology. - $35

A signed copy of The Blue Hour by Douglas Kennedy - $25

A signed copy of Among The Dead And Dreaming by Samuel Ligon - $25

$7 shipping charges apply for mailed merch within the US (though we can also hand it over if you happen to be in the city!). Please contact us for international shipping.

Exclusive content!

Prose Bowl's own John Hague will illustrate one of your stories. ($7 Shipping within the US.) - $35

Judges Zach Norton and Jordan Zolan will record an outgoing voicemail message for your phone, because we're pretty sure those are still a thing - $30

Prose Bowl staff will record a performance of one of your stories. This can be a straight, dramatic reading, or it can be not. We encourage you to select "not". - $45

Prose Bowl staff will record a roundtable discussion of one of your stories - $50

Real Live People!

Meet with author Victoria Brown for feedback on up to 20 pages of your work, or with publicist Melissa Ximena for advice on how to get that work out there. - $60

Break bread with the Prose Bowl crew! You can get brunch with us, where we will discuss a story of yours in person, or be really fancy and get a nice dinner with us, where we will talk about literally whatever you want. - $75-$250

We are what we are because of your support. Now's your chance to help us do it all bigger and better!

Risks and challenges

Expanding into a new medium or kicking up the scope of an existing project are both complicated prospects. Doing both might be just shy of madness. A lot of work goes into producing and distributing a monthly release: guests must be scheduled; segments must be recorded and edited; files must be hosted. Likewise, coordinating a show as big as the one we have in mind involves many moving parts. But luckily, we've brought together a really talented, passionate group of about a dozen people from a wide variety of backgrounds, including marketing, PR, design, and logistics—as well as, of course, writing.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10 or more
About $10

SUPER PROSE BOWL BASIC: One bookmark ticket to the Prose Bowl. Did we mention that the bookmark doubles as a bookmark? It does! (Please let us know how many tickets you'd like when donating; we'll keep you updated with how many are still available)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

PROSE DINNER: The Prose Bowl crew wines and dines you with a nice dinner and some scintillating conversation. We can discuss one of your stories, or one of someone else's stories, or whatever you damn well please.